Dutch, Australian experts reach MH17 crash site

KIEV, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Four Dutch and Australian experts on Thursday reached the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine, says the monitoring mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

The experts were accompanied by OSCE monitors in Ukraine, and the group used a new route to access the locale, the monitoring mission said via its official Twitter account.

Fighting between Ukrainian government forces and pro-independence insurgents in the region had prevented international investigators from reaching the site.

There has been no official confirmation of the development from the Ukrainian authorities.

Earlier in the day, the Ukrainian parliament voted to allow international investigators to take military equipment to the crash site, which is believed to be under control of insurgents.8 The mission of the international investigators is to examine the area and recover the remaining bodies of the victims.

The ill-fated Boeing 777 jetliner crashed near the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk on July 17 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, killing all 298 people on board, including 193 Dutch and 28 Australian citizens.

Although the Ukrainian government has said the search operation at the crash site has been completed, some international monitors argued that there was evidence of missing human remains in the area.